'Garbage of Jupiter Beach' tells of one woman's impact on Jupiter

Cynthia Lenz, a videophotographer who won a first place award for her documentary, “The Garbage of Jupiter Beach,” and the efforts to keep that beach clean and open for dogs and their owners, looks out over the beach near her home in Jensen Beach. She says she hopes the video inspires beachgoers to clean up after themselves.

As she often does, Cyndi Lenz picks up trash whenever she is at a beach. Her video, “The Garbage of Jupiter Beach,” which details the efforts of the Friends of Jupiter Beach to keep the beach clean and open for dogs and their owners, was a recent award winner at the Delray Beach Film Festival.

Cynthia Lenz shoots some still photographs as she walks along the beach near her home at Jensen Beach. The film photographer recently created a video about the Friends of Jupiter Beach and its cleanup efforts, which won a first place at the Delray Beach Film Festival.

Considering that Cyndi Lenz does some of her best work behind the lens of a video camera, her name seems appropriate.

A home health nurse, Lenz, a Jensen Beach resident, considers nursing a job and filmmaking her passion.

Most recently, the Delray Beach Film Festival decided that her passion should be recognized and awarded her video, "The Garbage of Jupiter Beach," first place in the green short documentary category.

"When I first went to the ‘Party Like a Big Dog' dog wash to benefit the Friends of Jupiter Beach, all I knew of the organization was that they provided the baggies at the beach for dog owners," Lenz said.

"I didn't know the history of how the late Anita Lankler and her friends wanted to keep the dog beach open when the town of Jupiter threatened to close the beach to dogs and this became the nucleus of the Friends of Jupiter Beach. I spoke to Lynne Gibbons ... and fell in love with the story.

"I love the story of how Anita went to the Town Council meeting with her poop bags, made the promise to provide these bags, and the Town Council said OK.

"It's a great story of how nine people have now grown to 4,000 people involved with Friends of Jupiter Beach, and through this group and its monthly beach cleanup, they were able to pick up 20,000 pounds of garbage," Lenz said.

Once she was inspired to do the story of the Friends of Jupiter Beach, Lenz said, the project came together quite easily.

"I shot a couple of cleanups, I did an interview with Lynne, I got some lovely photos from a friend and I videotaped the day that Loggerhead Marinelife Center released 100 turtles into the ocean.

"Jupiter Town Councilor Bob Friedman was gracious enough to allow me to interview him and Joanna Aiken, Anita Lankler's best friend, gave me the archival video to use. Finally, I did an interview with the FJB president, Joan Ross, and then added shots of trash on the beach and people with their dogs on the beach," she said.

The rough cut of the video was more than 45 minutes long, but she wanted it to be succinct and straightforward. So she enlisted the help of her son, who is a graduate teaching assistant at the University of Central Florida and he did the final editing to bring it down to its 16- minute length.

Lenz has now submitted the video to almost 20 upcoming film festivals and is awaiting word on whether she is a winner.

"But this effort shouldn't just be at Jupiter Beach, it should be at all beaches."